About RISE
RISE is a grassroots collective of social workers and activists in NYC. We create spaces where progressive and radical ideas can be shared to build knowledge, skills and community. We want to inspire social workers to create a world where the need for social work is made obsolete.
Vision
RISE envisions a movement of social workers and activists that transforms the social service profession and the world by actively challenging racism, capitalism, and oppression of all kinds.
RISE believes in creating a world without the need for social workers, where community is celebrated, individuals bring their full selves without facing judgment, and social systems place an imperative on delivering social justice for all.
Transforming the field of social work begins with awareness of our current participation in the status quo. Putting that awareness into action will build a movement powerful enough to create the world we wish to live in.
Values
RISE is committed to changing the social work profession, not just critiquing it. Our organizing strategies and relationships to partners, community members, social work professionals and constituents is lead by these values:
- Action: We promote action on individual, communal, systemic levels to create radical social change. Analysis is not enough alone.
- Anti-Capitalist: We recognize our place within a capitalism economic system, while challenging ourselves to end our complacency within it. We are unpaid organizers in an entirely grassroots collective with no plan of financial profit. We situate ourselves outside of the non-profit industrial complex by resisting 501(c)3 incorporation.
- Anti-Racist: We recognize that racism is a central mechanism for structural inequality in the United States. We oppose this by organizing from an anti-racist framework and practice unlearning racism through our events and organizing strategies.
- Education: We create change by using analysis, reflection, and dialogue to educate ourselves and others on the field of social service work. We educate by asking individuals and communities to share their individual histories and lived experiences. We learn from each other and in community how to overcome oppression and organize for social change.
- Inclusive: We believe that a social movement that eliminates oppression will consist of communities of constituents, recipients of social services, youth, immigrants, people of color, and white folks. A social movement to eliminate the need for social workers will not only include social workers, but be an interdisciplinary effort that includes all social service workers, educators, activists, and everyone else who is willing to join in this struggle.
- Non-Hierarchical: Shared leadership and collective decision making ensure that our collective structure does not replicate dominant power structures we are working to change.
- Skill-building: We believe that to take education and analysis into action people need skills. RISE cultivates skills through workshops and events, and also from practicing our values in difficult moments within our community.
- Transparent: Honesty and self-reflection are necessary in understanding our participation in oppressive systems and holding ourselves accountable as a collective and as individuals. Transparency is crucial in our meetings, our organizing, and within our community.
Looks like NYU gave you a place to meet! This looks FABULOUS! Is this what you spent the weekend writing up?
Congratulations!!!!
I cannot tell you how excited I am about this conference! I have been organizing monthly gatherings with other radical social workers in Brooklyn! One of our members told us about this conference! I am want to be a part of the organizing group for this conference. It is definitely a manifestation of my dreams. Please contact me. Anna Ortega
Hi,
I’d like to help organize/plan for the upcoming conmference in NEw York in summer of 2009. Please let me know what I can do. My name is Joseph Newton, I am an OYR accelerated student at Hunter College ssw. Thank you.
Joseph
Hi Joseph,
So glad to hear that you are interested in working with us!
We can add you to our listserv (which has planning updates, tasks we need help with, upcoming meetings, etc) if you email swconference2009@gmail.com.
Our next meeting is at 6.30pm on Tuesday, March 31 at the School of Social Work at NYU. We will be discussing ways for people to be involved and the planning process so far at that meeting. Please email us if you’ll be attending, so we can give security a list of expected attendees.
Talk to you soon,
Kate Barrow
Committee Chair
Will Racism be addressed at the conference? It seems that it is implied within the lists of topics and suggestions. It could easily be avoided and minimized. Even on this website, to my knowledge, it has not been mentioned at all explicitly. Is there anybody else feeling the same?
Anti-racism will definitely be addressed throughout the conference, as it specifically and anti-oppression work in general, is one of the foundational values of the day. Racism, especially in how it plays out institutionally, is an underlying issue for almost every topic we have discussed addressing (from the school-to-prison-pipeline in NYC to the whitewashing of queer issues), however, I can see how that may not be as obvious in our written material as it is in our meetings and conversations. I’ll work on making that more explicit on the website.
Thanks for your feedback!
I am very interested in learning more as well as planning and participating in the upcoming conference. Please let me know your next steps. Thanks and congratulations on getting this going.
I just found your web page/conference announcement and unfortunately, I have missed the deadline for possible papers. Is there any opportunity for “late” papers to be considered? Where are the topics for the conference presentations listed? I am currently a school social worker in the NYC DOE. I am also interested in finding out how to register for the conference, fees, etc. Thank you for your attention and assistance.
Hi Daniela,
The information about presentations is all on the call for programs page of the website. We can consider your proposal if you get all your materials in before the end of this week.
Registration for the conference will be begin in late July, and the exact cost is still being determined.
Please email info@riseconference.org if you have any other questions.
This seems like an absolute grea opportunity to network and gain wonderful information that we may not receive any place else. However, did you consider having this event on a Saturday or Sunday so that working adults would not have to take a full day off from work? Because of this, I’m not even sure if I can attend!
Hi Traci,
We would have preferred to do a Saturday, but unfortunately because space is at such a premium in NYC this was the only date that was available in the fall. Our organizing committee is primarily professional social workers, and based on our experience most jobs encourage attending conferences as professional development. I hope that you will be able to convince your boss to give you the day off so you can join us!
Feel free to email me at kate@riseconference.org if you have any more questions.
Best,
Kate Barrow, LMSW
Conference Chair
Thank you for quick response Kate. I posted this same question by mistake on the registration page. Please ignore. Will there be any other upcoming events like this? In the Winter or Spring perhaps?
Thank you again,
TRaci
We are planning on making RISE an annual Fall event, but we are not sure about events before then. There definitely won’t be another conference before then (the planning process is way too intensive), however we are talking about having some kind of mini-events after the conference.
To stay informed on what we are up to, check our blog regularly, join our Facebook group, and/or join our email listserv by emailing info@riseconference.org.
hey everyone!
its wonderful to see the social work desire of the people in the new york city. i have been working for the underprivileged in india for a long time now and i just wished i could attend this conference…… please tell me are international participants allowed?
Rohit
email: rohit-088@hotmail.com
Hi Rohit,
International participants are definitely welcome to attend. You can register online (we cannot accept in person registration), at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/77165.
Please email info@riseconference.org if you have any other questions.
the email id is rohit_088@hotmail.com
i realy can not express my joy at finding this site and reading about this conference, i have been noursing the dream of organizing a thing like this in Lagos Nigeria, considering the sign of change in governance lately, the need to be part of this can not be ignored.
i hope to be equiped to make empact in our world.
Amalahu Chisom
[...] professionals can become more effective agents of social change. If your values are aligned with those of RISE, and you have skills or knowledge to share with this community, consider submitting a proposal to [...]
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